


the lengths i went to

by siyatania



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Goodbyes, Idk what to tag this as, M/M, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Sort Of, adam is trying to be supportive despite how he feels, its japanese culture (tm), keith is a mumbly grunting non-verbal teenager, sad uno games, season 7 spoilers i think?, takashi carries around one million snacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 22:41:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15374982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siyatania/pseuds/siyatania
Summary: Keith and Adam say goodbye to Shiro before Kerberos.





	the lengths i went to

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't even watch the episode but i still wrote this. so that's what you can expect for accuracy.

It doesn’t stop at corny t-shirts scribbled with farewell signatures. Badges are put on next, first by Keith, who gives up and stomps off to grab the other items once Shiro begins lecturing him about swearing each time he accidently stabs himself. Adam swiftly takes over in his absence, managing to secure them neatly in a line on Shiro’s chest despite the trembling of his hands.

“Remember when he finally learned to do calculus homework on his own?” Shiro asks, smiling and tucking a lock of hair behind Adam’s glasses.

Adam flusters, recalling a carton of chocolate ice cream and a sulking afternoon lost to videogames and cuddling. “Yeah, I remember.”

Keith returns with a crown of twigs and grass and berries, plucked from the few plants that manage decorate the desert. Adam helps him rest it on the Shiro’s head.

“Member when you said I couldn’t eat these?” Keith mumbles.

There are matching frozen faces as both men recall the hours spent trying to forge a medical certificate, the days of Keith violently resisting their attempts at pastoral care, and the weeks they had to endure before their carpet stopped clinging to the smell of vomit.

“… We remember,” the both of them reply.

There is some debate over the No-Fail Certain-A+ Exam-Acing scarf, because it _is_ August, and yellow wool isn’t exactly season appropriate. In the end, a compromise is reached, and Shiro ties it around his waist like a belt. After a moment of lip-biting and palm-snorting, Adam very astutely repositions it, turning it around so that the ends turn into trailing tails.

“Remember last year’s Halloween party?” he asks quietly, pulling the knot tight.

Shiro lightly grasps his hands, recalling booming voices and luke-warm beer that hadn’t warmed him nearly as much as the arm around his shoulders. “I remember.”

Berries dropping, wool swinging, badges glinting, they take a shuttle towards the launch point. Adam takes Shiro’s hand, who takes Keith’s. The youngest of the bunch doesn’t fidget on the way there, because he can actually be well-behaved when he wants to. Adam does fidget, because he can’t help it, and Shiro produces a hard candy for him from the messenger bag slung across his shoulders. The bag looks sleek and professional, but the inside is filled with well-loved novels and snacks and an anime action figure to frighten the bad luck away. Shiro’s been handing Adam snacks - on the shuttle, in class, waiting for exam results - since they first met, and it should feel like a marker of how nothing really changes.

But Shiro’s fingers are rougher than they were, and the shoulder pressed against his is broader. He doesn’t hold himself like a cheerful thirteen-year-old anymore; he holds himself like a man.

“Remember when you and Keith built the hoverbike together?” Adam asks, thumb running over that widened hand.

Shiro’s hands tightens around Keith’s as he recalls too many pinched fingers and the young teenager’s watchful, judging gaze and snarky comments. “Yeah, I remember,” he responds.

They finally arrive at the launch site and are shuffled into a waiting. Among the awed stares and the scattering applause, Shiro (still trailing twigs and yellow threads) elects to sit on the ground, pulling out an UNO deck. He graciously ignores it when Keith stacks sixes interchangeably on top of different coloured nines, and forgives when Adam practically throws draw fours down in his direction followed up with a cheeky (if wobbly) smiles.

“Remember when we went to the movies,” Keith grunts, shuffling the cards intensely while glaring at a victorious Adam.

Shiro leans back against Adam’s leg, exchanging looks: they both recall getting caught by Keith as they tried to sneak out for their first date, and the hopeless battle of trying to get him to stay quiet and go back to class by himself. It may have taken an extra-large popcorn and a subway sandwich to mellow him, but by the end they had caught sight of one of those rare, soft Keith smiles directed at their joined hands. They hadn’t worried about his approval ever since.

“Yes, I definitely remember that,” says Shiro, smiling, while Adam hums an affirmative.

He doesn’t go in alone. Keith takes Shiro’s hand this time, and Adam’s is warm on his shoulder, grounding him. When he has to get changed into his spacesuit, they hold the lucky items that don’t fit inside for him, Keith tucking his face into the yellow wool of the scarf in an poor attempt to disguise the tears leaking through, Adam’s grip accidently crushing a few berries, smearing red against his palm. Everything else, however, is allowed to stay on, when he’s moved off for the final pre-take-off checks.

Time passes with more tests, more questions, more scans – the afternoon goes by in a whirl, but one unlike those spent together under a desert sun during their down time. Keith has his arms crossed as they both try to peer down the hall at the goings on. Eventually, there’s a commotion, and a moment later has Shiro yanking them aside, trailed by a reluctant officer.

The kiss isn’t the best he and Adam have ever shared – they both have sugar-breath, a protesting teenager mashed between them, and a spacesuit to get in the way. But it’s a hard kiss, filled with fear, excitement and desperation.

“Remember that time you made out with me in my spacesuit?” Shiro breathes against Adam’s lips when they break apart.

“Shut up” exhales Adam, crushing Keith further as he wraps his arms tightly around broad shoulders and buries his face in Shiro’s neck. “Shut up.”

“It’s less than a year.” Shiro reminds them both, but his eyes are glossy as wraps his arms around them. “Remember that.”

It’s Keith that finally speaks up into the breathy silence, the crack of voice not completely attributable to puberty. “Enough remembering. When you get back, we can make new memories.”

Adam’s coos and awws are cut off by a pointed elbow to the ribs, but none of them let go of each other until the last possible moment.

-

-

-

Eventually they forget the forehead kisses, and the I love you Takashi’s, and the victory sign Shiro flashes them as he leaves.

Neither of them forget Shiro’s smile, burning with hope, brighter than the fire of a rocket ship.

 

 

-

**Author's Note:**

> scream at me on twitter @siyatania


End file.
